Rating: 
WARNING: Significant spoilers follow
Very seldom do I actually scream, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” when I’m watching a TV show. The season finale of The Newsroom made me do that. I’m not joking nor exaggerating, and, yes, that’s an exact quote. It’s not something I’m pleased about.
The moment came, as you might expect, during part of the “relationships” aspect of the show. In that moment, Maggie (Allison Pill), was splashed by a blatant bit of product placement for Sex in the City, goes on a rambling rant about the reality of being a single woman in the city, and sees that Jim (john Gallagher, Jr) is on the bus. Cue my screaming.
What a stupid, awful, idiotic, pointless, contrived way of moving a plot forward. It makes the relationship twists from Twilight look rapier-like in their subtlety. That it ends with Jim kissing Maggie in that “hands on either side of her head like he’s going to pull it off” pose that people use in movies and TV but never in real life, was just icing on the sour, flat cake.
I have gone on at length about how the relationship stories destroy this show, and they do. Believe me when I say that I don’t care even slightly about the relationships and romantic lives of any of these characters. Make me care about the characters first, then let relationships come up organically. Don’t force it. This is Writing 101 crap, and Aaron Sorkin, who remains among the best in the business when it comes to writing, has either forgotten this basic rule or has decided he just doesn’t give a crap.
Normally there’s enough good in the form of “sausage making” story to hold my interest and give me something to grab on to and enjoy. That should have been the case here. I should have really been into the story when Charlie’s (Sam Waterston) NSA source killed himself. I should have cared deeply about Will (Jeff Daniels), facing firing over being high on the air. When Charlie, Will and McKenzie (Emily Mortimer) had their moment of triumph over Leona (Jane Fonda), and her obnoxious son, I should have stood up and cheered. I really should have been happy when Will refers to the Christianist elements of the Tea Party people as “the American Taliban,” as that’s pretty much what I think of them. But I just couldn’t. By that point, the show’s horrible relationship writing had alienated me way too much.
I know, I know. I go off on this issue way too much. The horse is, by this point, just a bloody smear on the ground. But this story, and indeed, this season, was dominated by stupid romantic subplots. We had Will/McKenzie, Will/Nina, Don/Maggie, Jim/Maggie, Jim/Lisa, and in this episode, the potential of Don/Sloane. This is made all the worse by two things: the fact that every single woman in these relationship stories tends to come off as a simpering idiot whenever her man is around or being discussed (thus making this show a horrible failure when it comes to the Bechdel test), and the fact that all of these pairings are heterosexual. The latter is especially vexing on a network that’s made a point of working gay, lesbian or bisexual characters into basically everything they’ve done.
I will not give up hope. When season two rolls around, I’ll be back to watch and review the show. But I deeply, sincerely hope that in the meantime, Sorkin hires a writer whose one and only job it is to handle all the relationship stories. If I can crib a moment from The West Wing, “Let Sorkin be Sorkin”. When it comes to sausage making stories, he’s the best there is. But keep him far, far away from this kind of soap opera BS.
We are currently seeking TV contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a TV contributor, click here.
9 Comments
I think we’re watching different shows. The first season of Newsroom was an absolute joy in my book. I’m gonna miss this one while I wait for season 2.
I do still really want to like the show, and I have great hopes for season two. Season one wasn’t even a great failure in my mind, it just wasn’t all it could have been. I’m inclined to give the overall season three stars.
Couldn’t agree more with this review. The ridiculous and whooly unrealistic relationship soap operas are ruining what would be an otherwise excellent show.
Couldn’t agree more. The unrealistic relationship soap operas are ruining what would otherwise be an excellent show.
I enjoy criticizing and ripping this show rather than watching it. Like I said last week, I am shocked that as talented as Sorkin is he continues to make the most fundamental storytelling mistakes. I think Rainn Wilson from the Office commented that the love story of Maggie and Jim is essentially a cut-and-paste job of the Jim and Pam love story of the early seasons of the Office…except that it is done poorly. Jim and Pam, from the Office was done well because it was organic. The characters started off as friends who held their feelings to themselves. The audience watched Jim and Pam struggle to keep their feelings bottled up and waited with anticipation. Here, in the Newsroom, there is NO anticipation. Everybody just blurts out exactly what they are feeling! It’s as if Sorkin thinks that expressions of love should be shouted like political opinions. “I hate America!” “I love you Maggie!” The love stories in the Newsroom is about as heavy handed as the Anikan Skywalker and Queen Amidala relationship in the Star Wars prequels. Yes, dialogue aside, Sorkin is slowly becoming the writer that George Lucas has become. I don’t think I’m coming back to watch season 2, unless I feel the need to complain about something other than the Star Wars prequels.
The Jim and Pam comparison is an excellent one. It’s true that that particular relationship came about because of the BBC version of the show but, at least initially, it was still very well done and felt quite organic.
I remain pleased with the news production aspects of the show. As long as Sorkin sticks with those and farms out the other stuff, this program could indeed be great.
I am trying to figure out why Sorkin feels the need to jam all this silly relationship stuff in here. It’s obvious that it doesn’t work and that it impedes the actual storytelling. There was virtually none of this in West Wing, and nobody missed it.
People exclaiming their love for each other in the middle of the newsroom? Valentine hearts on all the walls and windows? Really? Don and Maggie doing the big smooch at the editor’s station? What newsroom has this ever happened in? Or office? (And yeah, why are all the women in the series ditzes? The EP of a national news program can’t control herself in front of staff? Can’t work a cell phone? Can’t get out a coherent sentence under pressure? Emily Mortimer is fine, it’s the writing beneath her that’s killing the show.)
I have made exactly the same comparison to Jim and Pam from the Office. They even look disturbingly similar to the aforementioned characters.
The first episode of this series absolutely blew me away. I keep watching only in hopes that I catch a bit of a spark from that initial excitement. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only person that feels like the relationships are forced. On occasion, I’ve literally caught myself blurting out, “Move on with the story already, no one **ing cares!” during some absurd display of faux-romance.
The only relationship that I’ve grown partial to is that of Will and Mackenzie. For some reason, the absurdity of this relationship is such that I can completely relate to it – I have had parallel relationships in my past (I’m admitting this with full knowledge of the fact that this reflects horribly on my own character). However, I think this may somewhat explain the formula that was taken in regards to writing the romantic interests into this show.
It seems that there’s one example of just about every type of failed-from-the-beginning relationship that’s possible. As though the writer is hedging all of his bets at once in the hope that viewers will latch on to whichever horrible relationship they relate to the most out of this aweful mix.
Absolutely agree that the romantic relationships and stupidifying of the female characters have ruined this show for me. Add to that the fact that Alan Sorkin appears to believe that ranting and speechifying count as dialogue. The show has a great cast and a very promising premise but all juvenile characters, portrayal of women as hysterical emotional basket cases and teenage romantic pulp sorely disappoint.